Still Running
by DreamingIce
Summary: A small collection of 2012 shuffle challenge ficlets. Mostly Pond-centric, a peek in from season 2 characters too!


**Still Running**

Okay, I originally wrote these as part of a multifandom challenge this year - 10 songs from my iPod on shuffle=5 ficlets from various fandoms each month. Every month (Ending with 60 ficlets across some 30 odd fandoms!).

And, well, this year had be bawling a bit over DW (I still flail slightly at the thought of Angels of Manhattan). Re watching seasons 1-6 in prep for season 7 probably didn't help my emotional state either...

So, here's a little compilation of the DW ficlets I wrote in 2012. Hopefully they've been done justice... Please Enjoy!

* * *

**April**

**Title:** Risk Taking  
**Fandom:** Doctor Who  
**Characters:** Jackie Tyler  
**Timeframe:** somewhere in season 2  
**Theme:**Aquarius – Within Temptation

_They say I'm seeking out the danger.  
__That one day you won't let me go,  
__I'll drown, you'll take me down.  
~*~_

Jackie Tyler is by no means a stupid woman.

She isn't academically gifted, but her knowledge of people has served her well during her life.

Rose is her world, and as much as she wants her daughter to be everything she herself could never be, she wants to keep her safe and protected.

The Doctor was a direct threat to her Rose's safety. She knows that. She's seen it in action. But during Rose's association with the infuriating man, Jackie has seen her girl blossom into a strong minded woman with drive. And she is so immensely _proud_ of this woman that her daughter has become. And begrudgingly, she will credit part of this change in her daughter to the Doctor.

But somewhere in her heart, she knows this can't last. One of these days, Rose is going to step into that blue box, and she won't see her again.

And Rose will never leave the Doctor. Jackie knows that Rose has fallen in love with him.

All she can do know is eye the lanky alien each time, imploring him to bring her daughter back to her again.

* * *

**August**

**Title:** Birthdays are Complicated Things  
**Fandom:** Doctor Who  
**Characters:** River Song, Rory Williams  
**Timeframe:** A Good Man Goes to War  
**Theme:** The Lottery Ticket – BSG mini soundtrack  
~*~

River is still riding the high from her birthday date as she waltzes back to her cell, her mind deliciously occupied.

Rory Williams in the garb of a Roman centurion is not what she expects to find.

The look on his face drives the happy thoughts from her head rapidly, although she tries to hold on to them, and she finds herself babbling uncharacteristically.

_Her birthday. _

She checks her diary on reflex, but it all clicked into place in her mind already.

_Demon's Run._

River cannot face him as he explains the basics of what she already knows. She can't stand to see the look on his face when she admits she can't help. When Rory presses her as to why, she manages to string out a coherent answer, drawing on her past conversations with him (from his timestream, at least), gives as much information as she can.

She can't express that her terror is not just from the Doctor finding out who she is, but himself and Amy finding out that the infant they tried so hard to find is already gone. In many ways, she has feared this confrontation with her parents as much as anything she has admitted to any living soul.

Oh, she wishes she could go, change her own story, and that of her parents. But her story as already been written, the paradox created would be horrendous, and quite possibly deadly.

For all of time's fluidity, it is still a harsh mistress.

After Rory leaves, muttering and a scowl plastered on his face, River finds herself curled into a corner, tears tracking down her face. She rarely allows herself these moments of indulgence and self-pity, but today, is surely one of those days. She tries to enjoy the time she gets to spend with Amy and Rory in their messed up timelines, but the pain never really leaves.

River Song cries. She cries for Amy and Rory, but mostly, she cries for Melody Pond, and the life she never had.

* * *

**Title:** These Broken Wishes  
**Fandom:** Doctor Who  
**Characters:** Rory Williams  
**Timeframe:** A Good Man Goes to War  
**Theme:** The Vision – Immediate Music  
~*~

For a couple of hours, they thought that they had been victorious.

He'd held his daughter (it still seemed so surreal. He suddenly has a _daughter_), embraced his wife again, and the three of them were suddenly a _family_.

There had been a thrill of fear run through him when Madame Vastra had commented, "My friend, you have never risen higher."

"_He'll rise higher than ever before, then fall so much further,"_ River's voice echoed in his memory.

But he'd pushed it aside, caught up in the moment, holding his family close and not wanting to consider that they could be split apart again.

But it was a foolish thought.

Lorna Bucket's warning was only the beginning. He should have gotten Amy and Melody into the TARDIS straight away, but hindsight is a bitch.

Battle joined, nowhere to hide except some storage boxes. Rory looses himself into the fury of battle, taking down any one that heads for his wife and daughter, letting the memories of the roman centurion lead him through the fight.

Then he hears Amy scream.

Amy has never screamed like that before in her life.

He finds her in hysterics, clutching the swaddling that had contained their daughter, but is now covered with a horribly familiar goo.

Melody had never really been here at all.

They'd lost before they'd even started.

His knees give out beneath him as he cries with his wife.

* * *

**October**

**Title:** Stories Past  
**Fandom:** Doctor Who  
**Characters:** River Song, 11th Doctor, Brian Williams  
**Timeframe:** Post _Angels of Manhattan  
_**Theme:**Never Let Me Go – Florence + The Machine

_And it's peaceful in the deep  
__Cathedral where you cannot breathe  
__No need to pray  
__No need to speak  
~*~_

They shouldn't have stuck around in the graveyard.

But it's too late to change that now. River has lost her parents once again, and the Doctor has lost more friends.

She at least can contact them again. It's the Doctor she worries about. She can't stay with him now. They both need their space to grieve, so to speak.

But there is a visit the Doctor has to make.

He once promised Brian Williams that he'd bring Amy and Rory back safe. He does not like the thought of telling Brian that they aren't coming back.

River has come with him for this last trip to Leadsworth.

Brian is relatively unfussed by the TARDIS appearance in his living room, but his face shifts when Amy and Rory fail to appear.

"What happened, Doctor?" he asks quietly.

The Doctor and River do their best to explain New York, and luckily Brian seems to be following it. They left out how exactly they'd broken the paradox at Winter Quay, though.

Brian's face is still pale as he mulls over the information.

"They are alive, though?" he whispers.

River nods. "Yes, they are alive," she confirms.

"But they can't come back here."

"I'm sorry," River replied sadly.

The three sat in silence for a while, before Brian looked at River suddenly and asked "And who are you?"

River's mouth twisted in to a wry smile. "It's complicated," she warned. "But I'm your granddaughter."

Brian just blinked at her, disbelief written on his face.

"We'll need a while to get through this story..."

* * *

Thoughts? Concrit? Review?

Happy New Year everyone!


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